At long last, Rev. has returned with a stunning, inspiring, and jaw-dropping battle report for you today. This absence of documented wars since the winter has been fraught with planning and coordinating with forum goer Lord Mercat. We made plans to meet up and hang out at Brickfair Chantilly 2013 as exhibitors. Lord Mercat built a beautiful terrain board and for Friday we set up a diorama of a pitched battle for the public to ogle at on Saturday morning. And finally, on Saturday afternoon, we pulled out our respective Medieval armies and began to brikwar. Lord Mercat, despite lack of experience in medieval battles, is a swell chap and a cunning brik warrior, so I hope you are ready for some great footage.

Turn 0: Battlefield and Deployment

These are some quick photos of the Thairm battlefield. The scenery is rich with lots of battle potential. Crags, floating platforms, rivers, bridges, you get the idea. What might be slightly obvious is that room for cavalry is limited.

Lord Mercat's Mythic Order assembles on the far side of the river behind the waterfall. On the left flank, as you can see, plenty of cavalry in the one open space on the battlefield. He's amassed 4 knights, 2 halberdiers, 3 warg riders, and 3 rangers. On the right flank, 2 more knights, 6 rangers, 3 swordsmen, and 6 templars. In the back is a battle cleric, and Arycelle the Archer Hero.

Unfortunately, I lost the picture of the Dragon Guard left flank. There I assembled 6 archers, 3 knights, 5 fireblades, and a cleric. On the right flank, Lucien Sylvanus marches with 6 dual-wielding mercenaries, 6 spearmen, and 2 dragon riders. Spearmen have taken the bridge, and the dragon riders are prepped to hop over the river.

Turn 1

Mythic Order

Arycelle of the Mythic Order begins with a William Tell type feat. She spies a dragon rider across the river.

Sploink! The feat succeeds and Arycelle takes off the dragon rider's head.

In the previous photo, you'll notice that the rider's dragon was also downed. Mythic Order troops move up and the rangers let loose, pinning the beast to the ground.

On the left flank, the Mythic Order also has a bloody beginning. Two fireblades are skewered by rangers, by overkill damage if I recall. Two MO knights dual charge a dragon knight. A third had attempted to charge the archers, but two of them bailed out of the way. While one of the archers was in the process of bailing, a fourth MO knight charges him! The rest of the Mythic Order forces move up as you can see.

Dragon Guard

Lucien--operating on a Galahad cliche--attempts to part the river Moses-like so that his soldiers can walk safely across and charge into battle. Alas, his prayer fumbles and he stumbles into the brine. The spearmen trudge across the bridge, and the mercenaries make it to the top.

The second dragon rider skips the river and drops his rider off. The dragon then barbecues a paladin and a ranger, setting a second ranger on fire.

To the left, dragon knights thunder in, taking one MO knight with them; the second they attempted to attack survived I think.

With the help of a dragon cleric, four fire blades rush the horse of an MO knight. The horse is slain and the rider leaps to his feet.

And here...meet Trollface, a chaotic demigod that has intruded on the battles of Rev. and Lord Mercat. Trollface appears randomly, attacking a random general in the trolliest location possible. On turn one, he pops out of the river and smacks two Mythic Order halberdiers to death.

Turn 2

Mythic Order

Templars smack the green dragon around a bit. At the same time, Arycelle takes a magic arrow out of her quiver and starts to aim.

Her intended targets were the spearmen squad who had just landed. Damage from the shot was SO CRITICALLY SUCCESSFUL that it slew three infantry outright and destroyed half of the bridge! With the decimation of the bridge, the mercenary squad falls helpless into the waters.

Arycelle takes another shot; this one fails, however, and she headshots one of her own.

On the left flank, several Mythic Order soldiers make short work of Trollface; no one wants him to stick around...for long...

Cavalry attacks end in deaths on both sides.

Archers of the Order take out the dragon cleric and a fireblade.

Two battlefield overviews.

Rev.

Archers of the dragon guard set their sights on a warg rider. The squad leader commandeers a Mythic Order horse and saunters forward.

Right of the waterfall, Sylvanus prayers for...something...I don't remember what the feat was supposed to be. It failed.

Mercenaries begin to emerge out of the river. They are none to pleased to see so many of their deceased comrades. Spearmen enter close combat with some rangers but whiff pretty badly.

Turn 3

Mythic Order

Mythic Order units move forward, likely taking out some Dragon Guard along the way.

Several of those casualties are mercenaries still floundering in the river. Like fish in a barrel, lol!

Left flank action sees the demise of the archer who took the horse, and a fireblade. MO Archers tried to pick on another fireblade, but he uses his supernatural die to creation a fire shield against the damage.

Trollface

Hmmm, Trollface has reappears! He shows up behind several rangers...don't provoke him and maybe he'll go away......

Bonk! Blop!

Rev.

Lucien gets up and pulls a pair of coconuts out of his pants. Seems, however, that their horses are all tuckered out from swimming in the river. Feat failed...again...

Field overview. Rolled a whole lot of ones this turn

Turn 4

Mythic Order

A Mythic Order knight counter charges a dragon knight who had previously lanced a warg rider. Critical success launches his helmet to a nearby obelisk.

The dismounted knight severs a fireblade. Only one left out of the original five...

Once again, Mythic Order units turn on Trollface. Oh, he'll be back....he'll be back...

To the right, things continue to look grim for the dragon guard. More spearmen bite the dust.

The Mythic Order battle cleric raises a ranger. Because the ranger had its skin scorched, (s)he is skeletonized.

Arycelle takes a shot at a mercenary. Seems pretty successful to me!

And the rangers make short work of the second one. Sylvanus continues to hop around in the background, banging his coconuts together wildly.

Battlefield overview.

Rev.

With very few men left, Rev finally charges into the fray. He decaps a ranger. Sylvanus also attempts a banishment feat to rebuke the two skeletons on the field. The feat backfires and one of his own soldiers raises from the dead against him!!!

However, moral victory on the left flank. The fireblade criticals his damage and decapitates the dismounted Mythic Order knight. Huzzah.

Trollololo lololol lololol.

Yeyeyeyeyeh, ohohohoh!

Trollface turned the fireblades head into a croquet ball and eliminated a fleeing archer. Actually, all the archers on the left flank are fleeing!

Turn 5

"Cowards deserve a cowards death!"

Arycelle fires an arrow into the sky. Enraged at the fleeing archer's lack of honor, she turns him into a permanent decoration on the battlefield.

Templars make short work of a spearman.

And a dark day for the Dragon Guard. Combined archer attacks and CC attacks lead to massive damage, hemorrhaging, and evisceration. Lucien Sylvanus has been slain!

Rev.

With but a single archer left fleeing the battlefield alive, the news of his lord's demise is too much to bear. He will not become another dead coward! Turning on his heels, he secures an arrow from his quiver and takes a mighty leap at the knights that pursue him!

Right through the visor!

Turn 6 - Finality

Arycelle is intent on letting no Dragon Guard leave the field alive. The Sword of Aurora will belong to the Mythic Order. Taking a run, she skirts and leaps off the cooling body of Sylvanus, misty flips through the air, and launches a final arrow across the battlefield. The archer who accosted her knight meets his end. Arycelle lands nimbly on the opposite side of the river and assembles her victorious expeditionary force for a photo op:

Victory to the Mythic Order

That's it, folks. Game one of the outing to Brickfair 2013. We completed this match on Saturday but held a much larger battle on Sunday before I had to return to PA. In all likelihood, I will not have that batrep up until next week, but please sate your appetite with this gem of mayhem.

Nice, turned out awesome! Things to note- we were using rev's stats on weaponry, and Longbows turned out to be incredibly OP @ 1d6+2 and UR 3, so we altered them to UR 4 for the next battle, and they were much more balanced- another thing of note was that we tested out the overkill rules, and I certainly like them, there were several instances where overkill came in handy for my forces, I remember one ranger downing two fireblades with a single shot, and Arycelle just ripping through two spearmen, a slayer and the entire back half of the bridge with one shot- speaking of which, Arycelle was a beast, she took out something like 8 guys out of 30, and then one friendly fire . Also, I have a few shots of the battlefield from my end, just to highlight a few things, because more pics is never a bad thing!

First off, the missing picture of Rev's left flank:

Next up we have Arcyelle's successful first feat, and a very surprised Dragon Rider

Some battle overviews before the carnage:

And then this was awesome- When I charged some archers with my first heavy cavalry, the nimble little fellows jumped out of the way- one of them actually critbailed like almost an entire foot- so we posed him in midair jumping away, and I promptly had my next knight charge and run him through in midair- I got a benny for that!

Some more pics of the very first appearance of Trollface, wielding his twin maces Umadd and Loll, he makes short work of some unsuspecting halberdiers

And Trollface is in turn sent back to whence he came- or is he? Little do the crossbowmen realize that Death is denied to Immortals and Trolls- He'll be back, he'll always be back....

And sure enough, not too much later, guess who pops up behind some unsuspecting rangers:

Umad?

The attacks of these two elite Mythic Order Templars are of no interest to trollface, and he parries them with disinterest in his expression and Lols in his heart:

Now, charging cavalry however? That's going to prove just a mite more fatal:

When will they learn? You just can't get rid of a Troll, they never quit, even when they are so obviously behind- as in behind this fireblade- the very fireblade who has spent most the entire battle locked in a deadly duel with the Mythic Order Cavalry officer, who has slain many of his comrades and whom he has finally bested with a well placed slash- Elated in his victory, basking in the glory of battle, you can almost forgive him for not expecting what is to happen next:

Ah, schadenfreude

Poor archer- so close to fleeing, but not fast enough to escape a severed head at mach velocity:

None know from whence he came, and none know where now he goes, as trollface sinks below the waves. But all can rest assured, he will return...

Carnage overview midway through the battle:

One of my outriders getting hit- well, really damn hard In the background you can see one of rev's archers taking out one of my outriders- this fellow commandeered one of my slain halberdier's halberds and used it to great effect, cutting down several units before he himself was finally slain.

Carnage on the left flank:

This poor fellow was set to retire today, which of course means that this outcome was inevitable:

The Death of a Hero: Rev meets his end at the arrows of Arycelle and the Mythic Order Rangers:

And a few more pics of Arycelle's final feat, just because I love how cool it looks- Arcyelle, having run out of arrows, grabs the spear off a dying dragon guard spearman, and races up the body of the eviscerated Rev, flipping over the rivers base and launching the makeshift arrow into the face of the final enemy archer- a worthy death for a brave foe:

Final Overview of the battlefield:

Anyway, the next battle is even bigger, so look forward to that! It was great meeting and battling Rev, he's an awesome guy, and a great tactician, the dice just weren't really with him this game.

What you see off to the left, Brag, are murder beasts. Three of them. They are rancors for which Lord Mercat developed custom armor and gave them weapons. There are some good photos of them in battle #2.

Bragallot wrote:Damn Mercat, how are you able to put together such an exquisite looking force?

Also, are those medieval mechs / golems I see off the side of the field?

Trollface is really annoying though, though I guess that's kinda the point.

This report was awesome, looking forward to seeing the next.

Well, it took a long time (and a LOT of capes- I made of a point of making sure every single solitary figure in the entire army was cloaked), and watching for some good deals on bricklink to put it all together, but I think the Mythic Order came out fairly nicely. Armies for me are ever a work in progress though, so I'll be continually adding to the unit types and numbers over time. More on the force will come later though, I've been preparing pictures and whatnot for an armory topic, so look out for that to be upcoming, and more detail will be given there.

And then, as Rev was saying, those are not mechs or golems, those are Murderbeasts. Powerful, menacing creatures bred on Murderbeast island, and sent into battle under the loving command of the Murdermasters, those gifted figs specially trained to pilot them, the Murderbeasts are unequaled in their namesake art.

Essentially, they are rancors which I armored/crewed up, and they are awesome. For the next battle I ran them as size 4 structure 3, as rev didn't have anything of equivalent structure, but under most circumstances they will roll as size 4, structure 4, Armored. Provided they don't get aced by an all out calvalry charge, there is very little that can stop them on the field of (medieval) battle.

Here is a good pic of one till I get some better ones up in the armory. All three are different.

And if you find trollface to be annoying , then he has done his job. Just wait till you see next battle, the guy just never quits.

Semaj Nagirrac wrote:My hot wife and I were about to get a divorce until we saw your army. You have saved our marriage and won our allegiance.

If they're armoured, then indeed, you'd need something just as big, magic, heroic feats or some really heavy medieval artillery. I'd probably just sent squad after squad at them to get wiped out for the hell of it though, 'cos as someone said about Jurassic Park 2, 'what's the point of a big creature if can't have it rampaging around?' I've never seen a Lego rancor up close but I think maybe the Bull God Avatar or the steam mechs or demons Zahru and Fish!!! made could go toe to toe with them (I'm saying this from a 'because it would be awesome' perspective, not really a 'how to beat them' one). When I do put a big organic creature into battle like the Bull God I don't tend to make them 'armoured' because I think even small cuts and nicks would eventually whittle a large creature down - of course, if your creature is completely covered in armour and minifigs can only cut at their feet there's something to be said for making them armoured. I don't suppose those rancors can be taken apart too much? 'Cos component damage is generally the way (if a bit of a cheap) way of dealing with bigger creations.

Component damage would likely work as well, Rancors can be taken apart into several pieces, their lower jaw is removable, as well as both arms and hands- atttacking forces could also focus on the armor itself, to destroy it and make the creature more vulnerable. There of course would be other, more creative ways to defeat them as well, nothing is invincible. I do however think that, a well executed full-momentum cavalry charge would be the best bet. In fact, in the second battle I played with Rev, I kept the Murderbeasts in the back lineup specifically to prevent this from happening. Several knights charging with 3d6 damage each (and the 3d6 being AFTER the dice removed for armored) is nothing to sneeze at. Of course, should it survive the charge, that cavalry is essentially doomed. For example, one of the three murderbeasts I have is a champion variety, piloted by a hero, and utilizing a size 4 axe with cleave, which is just absolutely devestating, cuts through infantry and cavalry alike like a hot knife through butter.

And then of course, there is always grinding damage. But regardless, I find that when playing brikwars, you have the most fun when armies are approx equal in power. Sometimes that takes a bit of tweaking, but I have several sets of stats I use for my armies, depending on how my opponent stats his army. If I was facing someone who didnt have something equivalent, I'll knock down the structure level and remove the armored status, as I did when facing off against against rev. Because, as awesome as it is to have a huge creation rampaging around, its even more awesome when it's finally brought down. The bigger they are...

Anyway, I'll have some better images up later tonight/tommorrow, I'm working on an armory topic, there's just a lot of pics I had to wade through.

Semaj Nagirrac wrote:My hot wife and I were about to get a divorce until we saw your army. You have saved our marriage and won our allegiance.